Marion Bartoli and Daniela Hantuchova successful at the 2011 Mutua Madrid Open
Number eleven seed Marion Bartoli looked in commanding form as she thrashed out Romanian qualifier Simona Halep 6-4, 6-1 on Sunday to sail into the second round of 2011 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open in Spain.
Bartoli has been in decent form over the last few months as she started the season with a semi-final appearance at 2011 Brisbane International. She then reached quarterfinals at the 2011 Hobart. Bartoli continued her impressive
run at 2011 Qatar Ladies Open as well where she reached her second semi-final of the season. However, her best effort of the season came at the BNP Paribas Open where she made it to the finals. In pursuit of her sixth Women’s Tennis Association title, Bartoli
fell to world number one Caroline Wozniacki.
The Frenchwoman started the match on a bright note and looked to attack her opponent right from the first game. In the opening set she achieved a serve a break in eight game to take a vital 4-2 lead in the set. The 26-year-old
claimed her next service games with ease to bag the opener 6-4.
The second set also followed a similar pattern. Bartoli showed some crafty tennis and broke the serve early in the set to strengthen her position in the contest. Having put the challenger under extreme pressure, Bartoli smashed
wonderful forehand and backhand winners all over the court. She broke the serve three times in the set to ensure a straight set victory.
With her extremely accurate and effective serve, Bartoli overshadowed her opponent’s efforts. Her first serve conversion was an impressive 73 per cent while she converted 52 per cent of the points on return. The Frenchwoman made
most of the opportunities presented to her by converting five out of seven break chances in the match. Halep had no answers to Bartoli’s wonderful game play and managed to win only five games in the match. Ranked 12 in the world, Bartoli will face Russian
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her next match-up at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament. Pavlyuchenkova crushed Chinese Jie Zheng 6-0, 6-1 in the opener.
Slovakian tennis-pro Daniela Hantuchova also secured a comfortable victory over Japanese Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round of the WTA event.
Hantuchova looked in terrific form and required only 1 hour and 19 minutes in dispatching Date-Krumm. Her next round opponent will be world number 5 Samantha Stosur who came back from a set deficit against the Argentine tennis
star Gisela Dulko 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to book her place in the round of 32. Considering her recent performance the tour, Stosur will be the favourite for this clash.
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